Blink 182 to Tour Australia Without Travis Barker

Travis Barker will be sitting out Blink-182's upcoming Australian tour due to his fear of flying. Brooks Wackerman of Bad Religion will be filling in.

The trip to Australia was planned during our European tour last summer. The band knew the chances of Travis overcoming his fear of flying, which was magnified after the horrible plane crash in 2008, would be a challenge, but we wanted to play for our fans in Australia nonetheless. The three of us tried all measures to get us all there in full form. Travis has been working to overcome his fear of flying. Since we now know we have to make the trip without Travis our friend Brooks Wackerman (Bad Religion, Tenacious D) has stepped in. We love our fans in Australia so canceling was not an option so we still plan to come and play some kick ass shows. Mark, Tom, and Travis

Brooks is a fantastic drummer with a very diverse and impressive resume.
Infectious Grooves, Bad Religion, The Vandals - hell, he's even worked with Avril Lavigne and Korn.
Not to mention he's filled in for Blink in the past.
Really looking forward to seeing footage from this and wishing Travis all the best.

Obviously without Trav the performance / show won't be as good, that's a given.
Having said that, the fact that Australia gets to see Blink, I'm sure those fans will be grateful that they're going over there to begin with, especially since some of the most recent dates (months ago...) were Mark & Tom doing acoustic stuff... (although they did play Wasting Time at one date, which rules.)

overall, obviously a bummer no Trav but he has always said since it happened that he wouldn't fly and that's understandable.
John Madden never flew either after an incident - he always rode on an NFL bus to the Monday night football game to broadcast.

if there's anything to be bummed about, it's the fact that we here in America aren't seeing Blink when that would make my life and probably some of yours, a lot better than it is right now. haha.

and yes, I bought Tom's surf green fender 1 pickup guitar. gets a good sound depending on the amp.

wait did he do the UK tour? then my last post doesn't make as much sense.
but if I recall, I think mark and tom were over there before him.. even though mark does have a place there;
so maybe he did take a ship over.

wait did he do the UK tour? then my last post doesn't make as much sense.
but if I recall, I think mark and tom were over there before him.. even though mark does have a place there;
so maybe he did take a ship over.

Obviously without Trav the performance / show won't be as good, that's a given.
Having said that, the fact that Australia gets to see Blink, I'm sure those fans will be grateful that they're going over there to begin with, especially since some of the most recent dates (months ago...) were Mark & Tom doing acoustic stuff... (although they did play Wasting Time at one date, which rules.)

overall, obviously a bummer no Trav but he has always said since it happened that he wouldn't fly and that's understandable.
John Madden never flew either after an incident - he always rode on an NFL bus to the Monday night football game to broadcast.

if there's anything to be bummed about, it's the fact that we here in America aren't seeing Blink when that would make my life and probably some of yours, a lot better than it is right now. haha.

and yes, I bought Tom's surf green fender 1 pickup guitar. gets a good sound depending on the amp.

- Gunz

pretty sure those acoustic vids were like 2 song mid-encore type deals.. Travis was there

I completely understand him not wanting to fly, but on a professional level, it seems like very poor planning. He's known about this tour long enough to find another means of transportation over there. But who knows, like the person said above me, apparently no ship schedule matched up. It just seems possible that he knew for some time that he wasn't going make it over there to be making such a last minute announcement.

Still gonna be a fun and great experience for Australian fans and for Mark and Tom as well. I'm sure Travis is bummed as well, but he's got such a supportive fan base that'll keep him in their hearts during the shows.